Stronger With Age
Before I turned 30 years old (a few years ago, ha) I wanted to put together a list of fun things to do for my Birthday. If you know me, you know I LOVE Birthdays! Particularly my Birthday because I get to share it with my Dad and it has a few 8’s in it…my favorite number. But I also love everyone else’s Birthday…and half-Birthdays, because it gives us reason to celebrate!
So for my 30th Birthday I ended up kicking off the celebration by seeing if I could get 8 free Slurpees on July 11th (7/11…) I did. Success!
I also got an idea from my friend Brendan. He told me once that he does his new age in push ups each year without stopping. So I attempted to do 30 and succeeded. Little did I know that when I completed this goal, it would continue year after year…after year. I started to post the videos to hopefully inspire others that you can in fact, get stronger with age.
I had no idea that people actually watched and looked forward to seeing my push up video each year?!?! My husband is always a big supporter and is usually home when I make the attempt and “finally” get it done. He’s always ready to high five me and and say “great job!” But to be completely honest, when it comes to posting online, I sometimes put stuff out there and assume my parents (two of my biggest supporters) are the only ones who will watch and be proud. Thanks Mom and Dad! So you can imagine my surprise when one afternoon that I was visiting my parents, outside, socially distanced while my daughter banged out 12 pull-ups from a tree branch (she’s 7 if you’re wondering). One of my former softball coaches was walking by and stopped to catch up. As our conversation ended, Maria walked away to finish her workout and turned back to say “Can’t wait to see your push up video this year!” I’m sorry, what???
If I remember correctly, last year was the most difficult year. So, when I turned 39 (2019), I actually did 40 push ups. I was like, “This is getting to be way too hard. It hurts. I’m doing 40 this year so I can just be done with Birthday push ups.” I had zero intentions of adding more push ups to my training this year. I was not going to do Birthday push ups. Nope. Nada. Not at all.
I told Maria I wasn’t doing them this year because I did them last year. She was so quick to remind me that if I was doing this year’s push ups last year, I should have done 79, not 40. Immediately my heart sank and the competitive adrenaline that runs through my veins was released. I think I swore in my head to myself because I knew I wouldn’t let myself NOT do the goddamn push ups this year.
In fact, the competitor in me decided instead of backing down I should just up the ante. And that’s how I decided that instead of 8 Free Slurpees (Covid wouldn’t allow that this year anyway…) I might as well attempt to do 40 push ups a day for 8 days straight.
Each year I do this, I actually start training sometime around May. I don’t change my whole program. I just add more push ups to the mix, lots of planks (a push up is a moving plank in it’s simplest description), and back and shoulder stabilizing exercises. Push ups are a regular part of my routine, but I’m “comfortable” doing sets of 12-20 in any given workout. It usually takes me about two months to get to 25-30 “comfortably.” Once I hit that, I try to maintain some strength before going for the Birthday goal.
This year, I made my first attempt at 40 on July 9th. I completed them and from there I had to do them each day. It wasn’t pretty at times. Form suffered especially towards the end. As I mentioned about planks above, it wasn’t necessarily my arms that felt weak doing these, it was my core. But I did it. I recorded each session, so there’s proof. I’m sure you don’t want to watch 10 minutes of me doing push ups, but since there needs to be an official record, you can watch the YouTube video below…if you want!
As for next year, I say now that I won’t do 41 push ups, but who really knows? If I see Maria walking down the street again I may run in the opposite direction. :-) But that’s what I’ve learned good coaches do. They somehow find a way to show you what you’re capable of even after they’re technically not your coach. I’m lucky that I get to share my Birthday with my all-time favorite coach. Dad, Happy Birthday to us! And to anyone reading or watching the video, whether it’s your Birthday or not, remember you CAN get stronger with age!